Bumi boosted by hopes the feuding will soon be over

Monday 4 November 2013 12:31 BST

Troubled miner Bumi has few friends in the City but today got a rare burst of good news from the scribblers at Liberum.

Bumi has struggled with feuding shareholders since its creation in 2010, and earlier this year agreed a split with its co-founders, the Bakrie family. Richard Knights at Liberum is confident of good news on the split’s progress after interim results were released today, pushed forward by a week.

Knights said: “No surprises operationally, but the big news to our minds is the acceleration of publishing of these results, suggesting the separation deal may well be completed before year-end.” Knights rated Bumi a buy, but the shares slid 2.5p to 191.5p.

The wider mining sector was also buoyant. Anglo American rose 14.5p to 1474.75p after it completed the sale of its Amapá iron ore operation to Zamin Ferrous following regulatory approval. Antofagasta climbed 17p to 853.75p and Rio Tinto jumped 44p to 3228.5p, with both among the benchmark index’s biggest risers.

The miners helped the FTSE 100 index rise 24.54 points to 6759.28. HSBC shot to the top of the index after a strong set of third-quarter results. Despite revealing that it has been dragged into a currency fixing probe, investors cheered the news that profits at the bank soared 30% in the quarter. HSBC jumped 14p to 701.4p.

It was a different story at Royal Bank of Scotland after a downgrade from Oriel and price cuts from UBS, Société Générale and Barclays. Vivek Raja at Oriel reckons that “the accelerated loss of ‘bad bank’ assets will dilute long-term shareholder value” and squeeze profits. RBS fell 5.4p to 334.6p.

Turbulence at Ryanair pushed the FTSE’s airlines into free-fall today as investors developed a fear of flying.The budget carrier issued its second profit warning in as many months, blaming downward pressure on fares and it fell 11% — down 0.7p to 5.4p.

The announcement had a knock-on effect for the wider travel sector, with easyJet and British Airways-owner IAG slipping to the bottom of the index. EasyJet lost 45p to 1251p and IAG fell 3.9p to 349.85p. On the mid-cap index, travel agent Thomas Cook also took a battering, dropping 4.5p to 140.15p.

After strong results last week, scribblers at Panmure were keen on Countrywide, the UK’s biggest estate agent. Keith Baird at the broker reiterated his Buy rating on the firm and upped his forecast for growth in transactions, driven by “the accelerating growth of the UK economy and improved consumer confidence”. Countrywide climbed 8p to 559.25p.

AIM-listed Eckoh, which provides voice recognition technology for customer service and over-the-phone payments, jumped after announcing its biggest-ever contract win.

The deal with an unnamed telecoms operator, worth £11 million over 10 years, sent shares surging 3p to 27.5p.